September 13, 2010

COLUMBIA CITY — It didn’t matter what foot it came from, just about everything was at or in the goal Monday night for Columbia City girls’ soccer.
Hosting a Northeast Hoosier Conference special against New Haven, City had five different Lady Eagles post a goal in what was an early lead and 5-0 shutout for Columbia City.
“Our first two goals were within the first 10 minutes so we set the pace right there,” said Columbia City head coach Nicole Gebfert.
The Lady Eagles took control of the possession early and often in the first half with two goals in under six minutes of play.
First off the foot of forward Sarah Opliger, Columbia City quickly jumped on top of the Bulldogs in the 37th minute after Opliger beat the New Haven goalie Kairsa Jacquay for the first goal of the game.
Not celebrating long, the Lady Eagles struck again with senior Michaela McIntosh taking one of Columbia City 36 shots on goal for the game and putting it into the back of the net with 35 minutes remaining in the half.
“We’ve been stressing to possess the ball in the midfield and look to our forwards,” Gebfert noted. “We did that well tonight. That was exactly our game plan and we followed through with it.”
Another shot nearly helped put City up 3-0 as the first half whined down. Cassie McFarren took a loose ball up the middle narrowly missing a shot in the corner when it was snagged by the Bulldog goalkeeper.
Columbia City finally got the third goal it was looking for in the first half with No. 8 Emily Wise getting it with just eight seconds to spare in the half.
Off a run up the middle of the New Haven defense, Wise beat the goalie one-on-one to the left corner.
“We had a lot of different people score tonight,” Gebfert stated. “We spread the ball around, got shots from all different areas of the field. Five goals, five different girls.”
The scoring picked backup just one minute into the first half with Jessica Nierman. The senior took a long shot from the right wing clearing the goalkeeper’s reach to put it in the far side of the net.
One more goal came in late for the Lady Eagles with 13:56 remaining when senior Erica Spade cut off a bad pass in the New Haven defense for a shot in the upper left hand corner of the goal.
Columbia City (5-4, 2-2 NHC) head to Warsaw Thursday.